You are here

Deaths in the Philippines, 2015

Reference Number:

2017-114

Release Date:

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Explanatory Notes

Data on deaths presented in this release were obtained from the Certificates of Death (Municipal Form No. 103) that were registered at the Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrars all throughout the country and forwarded to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Information presented includes registered deaths which occurred from January to December 2015. Figures presented are not adjusted for under-registration.

Around six deaths per thousand population in 2015

Reported deaths in 2015 reached 560,605. The figure shows an increase of 23,606 or 4.4 percent higher than the previous year’s 536,999 deaths, which is equivalent to a crude death rate (CDR) of 5.5, or about six (6) persons per thousand population. In 2015, an average of 1,536 persons died daily. This translates to 64 deaths per hour or one (1) per minute.

The number of deaths from 2005 to 2015 showed an increasing trend. The increase during the ten-year period is almost one-third, or 31.6 percent, from 426,054 in 2005 to 560,605 in 2015 (see Figure 1 and Table 1).

Around four in ten deaths in Luzon

The top three regions in terms of number of deaths were in Luzon: Region IV-A with 80,778 or 14.4 percent of the total deaths, National Capital Region (NCR) with 74,530 (13.3%) and Region III with 65,540 (11.7%). Moreover, the combined share of these three regions was 39.4 percent of the total deaths.

On the other hand, the three regions which had the least number of deaths were ARMM (2,938 or 0.5%), CAR (7,909 or 1.4%) and Caraga (14,387 or 2.6%). These numbers accounted for only 4.5 percent of the total deaths in the country. This was about nine times lower than that of Region IV-A, NCR and Region 3 combined, which had the most number of deaths (see Figure 2 and Table 2).

Most number of deaths in January

The month of January recorded the highest number of deaths with 50,381 or 9.0 percent while June had the least number with 44,172 or 7.9 percent share of the total deaths.

On the average, 1,536 deaths occurred daily. The months of January (105.8), February (103.6), August (101.9), October (101.6) and December (100.3) were the months that exceeded the national daily index value of 100.0. This means that the number of daily average occurrence of deaths during these months were greater than the whole year’s daily average occurrence (see Figure 3 and Table 3).

More female deaths in old age than males

It was noted that the most number of deaths occurred at ages 85 and over with 57,344 or 10.2 percent and were mostly females 37,888 (66.1%). This is an indication that women live longer than men. The age group 10-14 had the least number of recorded deaths among other age groups, with only 4,720 deaths or a share of only 0.8 percent of the total (see Figure 4 and Table 4).

Six out of ten deaths not medically attended

Medically attended deaths are those attended by a physician, public health officer, hospital authority or other medically inclined personnel.

In 2015, out of 560,605 registered deaths, 331,874 (59.2%) were unattended and 227,217 (40.5%) were medically attended. Among all regions, only NCR had greater number of medically attended deaths (50,401 or 9.0%) than unattended deaths (34,159 or 6.1%). It could mean that NCR has better access to health facilities. On the other end, the top regions which had the most number of unattended deaths were Region IV-A (44,721 or 8.0%), Region III (41,467 or 7.4%) and ironically, NCR (34,159 or 6.1%), (see Figure 5 and Table 5).

Highest number of infant deaths in NCR

Infant deaths are those that occurred before reaching age 1. At the national level, 20,750 infant deaths were registered in 2015. Six out of ten deaths were males (12,086 or 59.7%). The top three regions that registered high infant deaths were NCR (3,811 or 18.4%), Region IV-A (3,657 or 17.6%) and Region III (2,368 or 11.4%). On the other hand, ARMM (196 or 0.9%), CAR (257 or 1.2%) and Caraga (344 or 1.7%) had the least number of registered infant deaths (see Figure 6 and Table 6).

High maternal deaths in CALABARZON

Maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes. There were 1,721 registered maternal deaths in the country in 2015.

Among all regions, CALABARZON recorded the biggest number of maternal deaths with 263 or 15.3 percent of the total, followed by Region VII with 182 or 10.6 percent, and NCR with 190 or 11.0 percent. On the other hand, CAR had the least number of maternal deaths recorded with 13 or 0.8 percent (Figure 7 and Table 7).

Eclampsia the number one leading cause of maternal death

The top leading cause of maternal deaths in 2015 was eclampsia with 337 (19.6%) out of 1,721 deaths. It was followed by gestational hypertension with significant proteinuria with 292 (17.0%) deaths, and by abnormality of forces of labour with 206 (12.0%) deaths (see Table 8).